Indian ferro silicon prices have been continuously declining since the first week of April owing to bearish market conditions. This week, prices fell by INR 3,400/t w-o-w as buyers bargained hard.
According to SteelMint’s assessment today, ferro silicon offers are at around INR 141,600/t exw Guwahati, while Bhutan’s offers remains unchanged at around INR 144,000/t from early month’s offer levels. However, some sellers were offering lower to attract bulk quantity bookings, sources informed.
Highlights:
Indian buyers (mainly end-users) are booking material as per need in a downtrending stainless steel market. Meanwhile, traders are showing lesser interest in advance bookings due to the continuously falling prices. Muted demand is affecting prices.
A few mills continued to postpone fresh bookings since April, in anticipation of further fall. This also created low demand.
However, daily power outages of 3 hours have reduced production by around 60 t/month in Meghalaya. This forced producers to not reduce their offers further.
China’s ferro silicon falls w-o-w
As a result of the Chinese government’s statement on fighting Covid-19, ferro silicon prices in China dropped significantly by RMB 2,050/t ($302/t) to RMB 9,350/t ($1,367/t) exw-Inner Mongolia amid downtrend in rebar prices. In response, Chinese ferro silicon suppliers slashed their prices in the spot market. Ferro silicon prices are expected to fall slightly in the short term due to weak exports of ferro silicon and a wait-and-watch market sentiment. Indian buyers were also encouraged to defer inquiries till prices fell further.
Outlook
Price pressure may persist in the coming days due to weak demand amid bearish stainless-steel sentiments. However, three factors may push up prices up amid supply tightness: If big chunks are allocated for government tenders. Two, if Meghalaya producers face continued production cuts. Lastly, if demand resumes.
Leave a Reply